Big Ten Champs!

In just his second season as head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions, Cael Sanderson has led his team to a Big Ten Championship. Penn State becomes the first team in the Eastern Time Zone since 1973 to win the Big Ten's. PSU went 5 for 5 in the finals and got important bonus points in the wrestle-backs to earn a 1 point victory over defending champ Iowa. Penn State won the title with 139.0 points narrowly beating Iowa who had 138.0.

Andrew Long, Frank Molinaro, David Taylor, Ed Ruth, and Quentin Wright all won Big Ten titles. But it wasn't just the guys in the championship rounds, it was a complete team effort. Brad Pataky and James Vollrath were wrestling for 7^th and knew there year was most likely over, but instead of sulking and going through the motions they went out and wrestled hard. Pataky got a tech fall and Vollrath used a first period cradle to secure a pin and those bonus points are the difference when you're talking about a 1-point win.

This makes every Penn State wrestling fan smile

The real story though was the resurgence of sophomore Quentin Wright. Coming off a three match losing streak, Wright was seeded 8^th. All he did was beat the 1^st, 2^nd and 5^th seeded wrestler and went 4-0 on his way to his first Big Ten championship. For his efforts Wright was named the tournament's outstanding wrestler. Cael Sanderson was named the 2011 Big Ten Coach of the Year and David Taylor was named both the Big Ten Wrestler of the Year and Big Ten Freshman of the Year for his undefeated run through the regular season and Big Tens. Congrats guys, now let's go get them at nationals!